Just 12 Days 2016

Remember my "Just 12 Days" pocket scrapping cards from 2 years ago?

Some Idea Prompts for "Just 12 Days"

Just Scrap 12 Days Design and a Little Art

This year I'm making scrapbook pages and offering the templates for your use.
I love templates and repeat the use of them, sometimes changing them up quite a bit.

Hope you find these useful in recording your "Just 12 Days". A gift for the holidays from me to you.

These are available in Dropbox at this site.

Here are some sample pages I made from these templates. You'll see that templates come alive with not only your photos, story, and title; but, the digital product, shadow styles and layer effects add a lot to the page.  Shadow styles I use on my pages are from Fiddle-Dee-Dee, Mommyish and Karla Dudley.

Supplies: cartoon image - Shutterstock Image ID:457393717, Copyright: Kazakova Maryia; washi tape - kwiniecki, eclectic ; buttons - DigitalDesignEssentials, Playful; stitching - treed, hello stitches ;  Patterned paper -  DDE, Playful; word art - blogovesta gosheva, free2beme; feather - feather6 by Stella; flower - TheDailyDigi85, HappyFresh, justbecausestudio

Supplies: Fonts - cherryla ornaments, Avenir light 65 medium, another shabby, traveling typewriter; Kit - Pixels&Co, genniferbursett,naughty christmas



Supplies: Fonts - Avenir, Traveling Typewriter; Kit - TheDailyDigi91, K Cronin-Barrow, Joie de Vivre; staple - OneLittleBird, Thrive 

Supplies: Fonts - AvenirLT65 Medium, Traveling Typewriter; Kit - OneLittleBird, Peartree

Supplies: Fonts - Avenir, Traveling Typewriter; Kit - DigitalPress, Gilded, AnitaDesigns, KarlaDudley, stitches - treed, Pixels&Co, HappyPlace, MeredithCardall

I'm working on other templates, so check back if you like these. If you do decide to use these in a mini album let me know. I'd love to see your pages. Remember, templates are not rigid or static. A few can work for very different pages for 12 days of scrapping. You can even make a mini book with just pages of one template and even one kit. 

I am trying to learn Camtasia; and, if I am successful, I'll make videos of creating these pages and more. I plan to give insights into how I scrap, use Photoshop tools and work with templates. I'll let you know.

Right now I'm waiting on my podcast. It has been submitted to iTunes and the website is built, though not yet available. I plan a Facebook page and FB group page, too. It's all very exciting. My first group of guests has been a delight to interview and I'm sure you'll enjoy their stories. I'll update on that info, too, as soon as I have the details.

How is your holiday planning? Most reading this know I'm a fan of Sun Basket. Good things to prepare and eat delivered to your door. There are also great recipes for cookies on the website. Those require shopping; no dessert ingredient deliveries, yet. They do have a party in a box for about 8 people that will make entertaining easy. Check it out. It's available to order until Dec. 22 for New Year (and for the rest of the 12 days of Christmas) delivery the week of Dec. 26.  Happy entertaining!

Here's my affiliate link to their site. 

December Birthdays, Magic and Secret Weapons

I have a birthday in December. This year was a very lovely celebration.
As a child, I did not like having a December birthday. I believe I've told this story before. Money was very tight at my house, and there was no way that my birthday would be anything special. I remember my thirteenth birthday with sadness. No party, there may have been a cake at dinner, I'm not sure. I got fifty cents and a white half slip that had so little lace on the bottom edge only that you almost needed a microscope to view. I was hurt, disappointed and angry.
When I was a little child birthdays got to be more fun because I shared them at a family party with my cousin Darrell who was celebrating his, too. The dates are only three days apart. It was affordable for my parents to share the cost. I remember those parties with fondness.
My husband is not the best of gift givers. He loves to be practical. After my childhood, I so much want to celebrate with frivolity! In some past years, I arranged my own glamorous celebration by getting tickets to the Crocker Ball. It was a way to celebrate and to support a favorite charity. However, it was more fun to bring along family members. Now, with increased ticket prices, going as a group has become too expensive. Maybe for my next "decade" birthday it might be an extravagant indulgence. Nonetheless, my husband, despite gifts of kitchen utensils and a electronics charging station, did treat me to a hot fudge sundae at Leatherby's and the next night a dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, Cielito Linda.

Those were fun celebrations and more of what I enjoy about birthdays! Of course, sharing memories is great fun and the
California International Marathon is always near my birthday, too. I almost missed this shot of the front runner!

My son, Chris, had Cal and me join his family for the annual lighting of the State of California Christmas tree before dinner at Tres Hermanas, another special Mexican restaurant that my grandson enjoys. Here is a page I made to celebrate the tree lighting ceremony. I'm working on other pages to remember the evening. Creating things is a passion.

This is a lift of a page design by Lisa Truesdell. Supplies: Lynn Grieveson kit - fresh festive; Scrapaneers stitching and enamel dots; font - Traveling Typewriter; shadows - FiddleDeeDee and Mommyish; washi tape - blueflowerart - harmony, dawn inskip - autumn elements, MLE - holiday cookies, Karla Dudley - rad bundle; mesh - KAagard, freewheeling

At Get It Scrapped, we have been participating in "Your December Story" where Debbie Hodge encourages us to tell our story following "The Hero's Journey." My son, Joe, is my "secret weapon." I request, as my birthday gift, that Joe decorate my tree since he has no money. He does a beautiful job, and it's no small task - I have 500 ornaments. He helps with the rest of the decorating including the outdoor lights, too, and the undecorating; but I treat him for those efforts. With my neck problem and Cal's advanced age and health challenges, too, Joe is the secret weapon to a lot getting done around here. Folding the sheets, taking out the trash or moving it to the curb, emptying the dishwasher, hanging pictures, or just getting things organized. He's always helpful. He also helps by enjoying the treats Cal cooks and watches football with Cal, too. It takes the pressure off me and helps me keep the weight off! Joe is my "special gift," without whom, I'd not be ready for the holidays.

It's an extended birthday, too. My stepson and his family are planning a dinner out with me and Cal.
The moments with family and the memories we share are some of the best parts of birthdays and celebrations. Those gifts are the most precious of all.

Using Templates when making Scrapbook Pages

 On DSD (Digital Scrapbook Day) this year I taught a class at Get It Scrapped about using templates to design pages.
Even if you follow a sketch or design exactly, including supplies and title, one would not end up with the same page as a designer since your photos and story would be different.
However, in my pages that follow, you'll see how I used extra photos, and rotated the sketch to make four different pages from one layout. Definitely not a cookie cutter approach! I usually use a lot of different patterned papers and embellishments. This time I only used that style on one layout. My idea was to change the look by using different color schemes and sketch alterations. Template - Scrapbook Coach 21, Top Heavy, Layout 4 from GIS Template Library.
I hope you enjoy reviewing these ways to vary the look of your scrapbook page using one basic design.

This is a template variation from my challenge using Scrapbook Coach 21 Top Heavy Layout 4, in an analogous color scheme. I advise limiting colors in this scheme. While 5 can work, three is the most eye-catching. Here I've used four colors - yellow, yellow-green, green and blue-green. I eliminated one photo from the top band changing that to a slightly smaller and lower positioned journaling block and added a stock photo as a repetitive element in place of the original journaling. The title uses the template font Butterscotch regular with a Mommish glitter style in Ocean, shadow styles - Mommyish, ephemera, and string/brad, speech bubble and brad from the template with brad and ephemera recolored. Geo tag brad - Gennifer Bursett, My Happy place, Grape wreath - Kimeric Creations, Making Memories, wine bottle  and glass stamp - Stella, tag - gennifer Bursett, Now, Fonts - Avenir Medium regular and Traveling Typewriter.

This is a variation in a split complementary color scheme of yellow, orange and blue-violet. The modification I used here was my signature using a photo as an embellishment attached with a paperclip, Again I've kept a few of the templates elements in place, recoloring and texturizing the papers in Adobe PSCC, wood star clip - OneLittleBird, This Magic Moment, star - TheDailyDigi, Let's Get Messy, arrow brad - WMsquared, XOXO; styles - Mommyish, Scrapaneers Champions; fonts - Bohemian Typewriter, Avenir Oblique

This is a monochromatic layout in yellow. If you check your color wheel you'll see that olive green is a shade of yellow. I did need to recolor the green in the camera embellishment to make it dark olive. Neutrals, like black, white and gray, of course add contrast without color and I did add a low opacity wash of yellow to the ephemera in background. Many consider beige tones neutral, too. I tend to be more narrow in my definitions so I did add the light opacity wash.

Supplies: Papers - recolored and texturized in Adobe PSCC; Bow - Mommyish, I've Got A Plan; camera brad - A Sweet Caroline Amanda Yi Collab, Focus,Click, Repeat; Paper Dolls - The Daily Digi, My Life of Wonderful; Fonts - Myriad Pro, Traveling Typewriter, Bohemian Typewriter; Brade and speech bubble from the template, Scrapbook Coach Top Heavy/Layout 4 from the GIS Templates

This variation of the template challenge, that I demonstrated on DSD, is made in a variation on a triad primary color scheme where the blue is augmented by using blue-green. Brown functions as a neutral and also balances the predominance of blue hue. If using a complex color scheme it's probably best for those less experienced with color to use mainly materials from a single kit as I have done here. I altered one of the photos by making it a 2 photo collage. DDE Playful Kit by Gina Cabrera, brown sticker - justjaimee, September Storyteller 2014, tag - Sweet Shoppe, Studio Basic Designs, Adventure Begins, logo - ShePodcasts, some embellishments from the original template, styles Mommyish, fonts - Avenir Medium, Avenir Roman Italic, Lobster 1.3 regular. Template - Scrapbook Coach 21, Top Heavy, Layout 4 from GIS Template Library

Scrapbooking for the Fun of It!

KimJensen_LiveOutLoud_brad, TDF88_vid_adventuretime kit; Fonts: Quicksand Bold, Remington Noiseless Reg; Fiddle-Dee-Dee Mystified template; Styles: Mommyish and Scrapaneers Championsstyles 

Lately, I've been back at making scrapbook pages for fun.

It seems that many of the pages I made over the past 6 months were ones for scrap assignments. It's good to be back creating just because.

Certainly, lots of fun things going on have inspired pages to scrap and pushed me to devote myself to my hobby. I'm using up old kits and products in paper and playing with templates and kits and even exploring techniques in digi.

I'm in a happier place than I've been in a long time and it is reflected in my work.

Oh, I'm still behind in things at home but spring cleaning is going on and steadily I'm getting on top of things. This month is starting slow but am loving the longer days. I believe I get sad in the winter.

This very happy page was made to celebrate my visit to Boston to meet with friends that are a part of the Get It Scrapped community. It was so fun to meet in person though we've been virtual friends for a while.

Learning - Scrapaneers Live! event starts tomorrow

Scrapaneers Live! April 16-17, 2016

Looking ahead to Scrapaneers Live. Something about learning tech graphics is appealing to me. I mean, truly; I co-host The Digiscrap Geek Podcast. You can listen to our latest podcast for an interview with Tiffany Tillman-Emanuel where she discusses "Live!." Of course, it's no surprise to you that I am into this stuff. I enjoy learning in general, though.
Coursera.com, Lynda.com, Get It Scrapped and Scrapaneers are some of my favorite educational sites. I do like Noell Hyman's Paperclipping videos, also. I am frustrated and disappointed that some places where I purchased courses are no longer available. While they offered the power to download the classes, it was not the right time in my life to collect the materials. Nowadays, there is time. I'd love having access to those Big Picture Classes and Creative Passion Classes. I'm not going to get overly depressed about it; not when great lessons at Scrapaneers and Get It Scrapped exist. I've looked at the program at the new BPC but have not subscribed for membership. I would enjoy hearing from folk taking classes there to discover what they think of the experience.
Now, if you are a current digital scrapbooker, please consider signing up for the Live event. It will be available virtually later if you are not free this weekend. If fresh to digital scrapbooking, check out Scrapaneers.com for a free introductory course in the hobby.

Healing

One thing I have learned from having surgery is how weepy and vulnerable I feel after a procedure. I cry for no reason, and my emotions are near the surface. Still, I am happy I have done these. My knee has been the most wonderful story. I am still a bit bruised and swollen (and not wearing makeup yet); so, the plastic procedures are hard to be enthusiastic about; though, even now they look good and I know in a few months will even be better. I am glad the eye surgery is over, and I think no more procedures.) I feel more myself. However, my husband has been the most patient of men as I work on the emotional stuff.

Obviously, one procedure after another has had its toll on the blog. It's been hard to do more than Facebook recently. I am getting enthusiastic about scrapbooking again, and I am looking forward to completing school for the semester. I am producing a few interesting prints. I plan to post those when I have more done. My French has improved even though I have not devoted the time I should have to my lessons. Art history has been fun. I think I like studio classes best, though.

I had some wonderful travels in October and hoped to pull things together into some scrapbook pages. I did try to keep up on Facebook, as I took the trips; but, looking back is a lot of fun, and I get to use my DSLR pictures!

Here are a few layouts from the past few months that I made for "Get It Scrapped" at http://www.DebbieHodge.com. It's been fun creating a variety of digital, paper and pocket pages. 

Supplies: papers and elements: Traci Martin Designs Missing You, Mommyish All A Flutter button, Amanda Yi The Darndest Things alpha, fonts: Pastiche Brush Regular, Avenir LT 45 Book Italic, template: GIS Template Scrapbook Coach 19 Double Wide lesson 3

Supplies: Papers - American crafts “Do IT Yourself”, epoxies - Me and My Big Ideas “mambi Sticks”, brads & baker’s twine - stash, wood veneers - Studio Calico, Basic Grey

Supplies: Paper - American Crafts; Pebbles, JenHadfield, Home Made; Studio Calico, Wanderlust; stash, paperclip, wood veneer -stash, 3x4 cards- WeRMemoryKeepers, confetti and cork stars - Studio Calico, die cuts and puffy sticker - stash

Supplies: TDF79_kimeric_summertimeblues, ProductPlay_DHodge_sketch2_template

Supplies:TLP_kwiniecki_freezefactor, TLP_ForeverJoy-COZY-UP, ClubScrapDigital_inkededges, file: MSD_201403_PhotoPlay_EPitts_Template

Supplies: One Little Bird - Crazy for You kit, Mommyish - I'm So Fancy kit, A Pennington - Honey kit, staple, Fonts: Heart and Soul, Trend Rough Sans One, Bohemian Typewriter, Traveling Typewriter, Styles: Mommyish, Distress Brush: Karla Dudley. Template: Debbie Hodge, Packed 2-Pagers| Layout 4 

Thank goodness for the Creative Team projects! They've kept me creating even when I've been challenged by the wear and tear of surgical procedures. The fact that I've been making art, too, has me reflecting that I have been busy! Just not blogging much. I've always found it a challenge to keep up even in the best of times, but I do save it for a personal record and like to look back. So, I am sure I'll keep at this.

Scrapbook Pages

 I've been making a few scrapbook pages recently and decided that I've not been spending as much time at my hobby as I'd like. Truthfully, once I get creating art, it's hard to get into my crafts. Not from too much creative energy but more of "What a mess!". Lots of stuff needed in creating. I know, "Isn't that why you digi scrap a lot?"
It doesn't create a mess anyone can see but it does mean a bit of searching and organizing. That's one reason I'm becoming more of a digi kit scrapper.
I'm going to post a few of my recent pages here. Be sure to check out Debbie Hodge's Get It Scrapped
where this heritage page is shown with several other examples of scrapping heritage photos with contemporary product.

Paper: Pink Paislee Switchboard, Studio Calico Lemon Lush, Teresa Collins Something Wonderful, Pocket Card: Studio Calico, Flower: Prima Flowers Coffee Break, Paper clip: Freckled Fawn, Stamp: Freckled Fawn/Hero Arts Sept 2014, Alpha: AC Thickers, Small alphas, glitter stickers, wood veneer banner, puffy sticker, paper clip, clear doodle stickers all Freckled Fawn (from kits Jan 2015, Dec 2014, Nov 2014, Sept 2014)

Some other layouts done recently:

Kim Watson Template from GIS files, Just Jaime Storyteller Sept and October 2014, styles and brushes Mommyish, Karla Dudley and Just Jaimee, font - Garamond

Mommyish Best Summer Ever, Im So Fancy;  TMartin Missing You, One Little Bird Crazy for You; PCO Focus, Click, Repeat, Karla Dudley Rad Bundle, Just Jaimee/Mommyish Year In Review; CD Muckosky Bootiful Night, My own designs (gingham, blue cardstock) Fonts: Oswald Book, Avenir Medium, Adobe Garamond Bold,  treed machine stitched sampler, pco dream, dde backyard splash

Jbarette's Perfect Fit, styles Mommyish, template by Amy Kingsford - MSD 11-2013 Sketch Inspired by Kelly Noel

Scrapbook Coach_Sprawl01_Template, Amanda Yi_TheDarndestThings, Studio Calico_Jan_FarFarAway, Mommyish_Shadow Styles -BohemianTypewriter, PasticheBrush

Check out the Scrapbook Coach videos http://masterfulscrapbookdesign.com at Get It Scrapped. I get a lot of inspiration there. The "You Love Football" page layout was inspired by a class there and the template/sketches for many of the layouts in the classes are available free for members at Get It Scrapped.